It would be interesting to see how many of those apps are impacted by all of the stations that have gone dark over the past 12yrs as well as how many are abandoned and not withdrawn.

Does the FCC check with applicants occasionally to see if apps are still alive? I have a couple of stations that were years in the app mill but they were constantly changing and communicating over a period of many years.

One of the FCC staff contacts me fairly regularly asking whether I know if application ______ has been built or not, usually shortly after the CP expires. A lot of the auction window applications still in pending status are in a queue behind the lead grant waiting for it to die and then take its place for another three years. Those lead applications were granted under 307(b) preferences and were not subject to an auction. Yeah, it's slow but the only practical way to make sure each grant gets its turn. Once a license application is filed the queue dissolves and the remaining applications are dismissed.